post by @nataliagresty

Seen at Brighton Dome on February 19th 2025

4 stars – A tamer, trippier and slightly decadent massacre 35 years on

It’s no secret that Brian Jonestown Massacre (BJM) shows can be a bit of a gamble. In fact, the lead singer, guitarist and founder of the San Francisco psychedelic rock band, Anton Newcombe, has made his unpredictable stage behaviour a substantial part of his personality. I’m glad to report not a single scuffle took place in the mighty Brighton Dome and their European leg of the tour kicks off in May.

The seven-piece band (with a long list of past members) centers around Newcombe and has since 1990 released 21 albums. They have mastered their signature sound featuring heavy guitar distortions, frequent use of pedals, kaleidoscopic melodies, and influences drawn from blues, garage rock, shoegaze, psychedelia, and, as the first part of their name suggests, mid-to-late 60s rock’n’roll. They can give a bit of a cult-like impression too, which I’m partially interpreting from the ‘Jonestown Massacre’ bit that refers to a religious cult in Guyana resulting in mass suicide, and partially from Newcombe’s well-known friendly rivalry with the psychedelic rock band The Dandy Warhols, as seen in the award-winning and hugely amusing 2004 documentary DIG!.

Thirty years later, however, they have mellowed down. Most of them are dressed in double denim, Anton has his trademark fedora on, and there is an apparent grownup and relaxed presence about them. It may be Anton’s slight cough or the state of contemporary rock music, but it seems they no longer need to remain fighting to prove themselves. 

They open with a rock tune Maybe Make It Right which quickly asserts an ambience from a different, bygone era. Their set of instrumental jams, indie rock stompers and powerful psychedelic riffs which blaze through us can easily make one feel like on a motorcycle ride without a helmet but flowers on the head, wearing bell-bottom flares and a chain belt. Their sound and themes alternate as they continuously swap between an impressive collection of vintage guitars, including a mid-1960s Vox V268 Ultrasonic with a silver Bigsby, as well as acoustic and solid body electric guitars with many pickups, such as humbuckers, single coils and the neat Jazzmaster P90. And let us not forget the 12-string Rickenbacker guitar, responsible for creating that quintessential jingly-jangly sound; many Fender amplifiers gracing the scene with a clean scream and modulation and distortion pedals that viscerally take the sound to another level (and give goosebumps). It goes without saying that the fellow guitarists Ricky Maymi and Hákon Aðalsteinsson as well as the drummer, bassist, tambourine player and keys player were all in perfect harmony.

Yet Newcombe, being the underground antihero he is, performs each set exactly how he wants; this time it’s with long pauses between songs and his meandering thoughts on existential matters taking up air time. Hits such as Anemone and Pish are performed at a slower speed but don’t fail to please the crowd, a mix of young and older fans. On the energetic Swedish track Vad Hände Med Dem?, he’s joined by Joakim Åhlund, the leader of the opening Stockholm act Les Big Byrd. The static percussionist and maracas player Joel Gion has recently published a memoir fittingly titled In the Jingle Jangle Jungle (a quote from Bob Dylan’s song Mr Tambourine Man) and as several audience members keep cheering ‘We love you Joel’, it’s apparent that both Newcombe and him have become living rock’n’roll legends. And even though what once seemed a promising route to becoming more popular than Jesus may have not come to fruition, their trailblazing attitude and genuine freedom in artistic expression and direction continues to both inspire and delight.

Tour: https://www.thebrianjonestownmassacre.com/tour 

Label: A Recordings

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrianjonestown/